In such a disk drive apparatus, a member called a slider, which is slidable in a lengthwise direction, and a member called a carrier, which holds a floppy disk therewith and moves up and down, are combined with each other so as to be mounted in a frame.
The slider is allowed to slide only in the lengthwise direction relative to the bottom surface of the frame and is restricted from vertical moving and horizontal moving other than in the sliding direction. For this purpose, between the frame and the slider, there are provided a vertical guide mechanism for restricting the vertical movement of the slider and a horizontal guide mechanism for restricting the horizontal movement of the slider other than in the sliding direction.
In conventional disk drive apparatuses, there are a type in that the slider is arranged between the frame and the carrier and another type in that the carrier is arranged between the frame and the slider. The bottom surface of the slider closely opposes the bottom surface of the frame, especially in the former.
In a structure of the disk drive apparatus, in which the bottom surface of the slider closely opposes the bottom surface of the frame, the above-mentioned vertical guide mechanism and horizontal guide mechanism are separately arranged between the bottom surface of the slider and the bottom surface of the frame.
On the bottom surface of the frame, however, there are other various elements such as a disk-driving motor and a magnetic-head-driving mechanism, which are mounted thereon at high densities. Also, since a positioning part of a floppy disk is formed by cut-up, etc., it is difficult to secure a space for separately arranging both the vertical guide mechanism and horizontal guide mechanism, so that this point has been one factor to reduce the degree of design freedom.
Moreover, when on the bottom surface of the frame, the vertical guide mechanism for restricting the vertical movement of the slider is arranged, there has been a problem of deflection produced on the bottom surface of the frame due to the load exerted on the bottom surface of the frame in the vertical direction.
Also, the disk drive apparatus using a floppy disk as a recording medium is recently at maturity as a product and the reduction of manufacturing cost is strongly demanded from the market, so that simplifying the structure to reduce fabrication cost has been an important object in the product development.
In view of the situations described above, the present invention has been made, and it is an object thereof to improve the structure of guides for restricting the movement of a slider so as to increase the degree of design freedom while reducing fabrication cost.